WWF Travel Blog

Copper Canyon offers breathtaking panoramic views. © WWF-US / Matthew Perl

Remarkably few travelers know about Copper Canyon, one of the most unique and dramatic natural formations on Earth. A collection of chasms, this impossibly rugged region is also home to one of North America’s most traditional native cultures, the Tarahumara, who live in caves below the rim.

10. Unlike what its name implies, Copper Canyon, in the state of Chihuahua in Mexico, is not just one canyon. It’s actually comprised of six wholly distinct and separate canyons. Three of them (del Cobre, Urique and Tararecua) can be seen at one time from the town of Divisadero.

9. Portions of Copper Canyon are deeper than the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The entire canyon system stretches approximately 900 miles.

8. The name “Copper Canyon” comes from the bronze-like color of the canyon walls. While copper is mined in some parts of the canyon, silver and gold are more common.

7. Like several Copper Canyon towns, El Fuerte was founded in 1564 by the Spanish Basque conquistador Don Francis de Ibarra, who sought out silver  in the Sierra Madre Occidental region.

6. The Tarahumara people are well known worldwide for almost non-human-like endurance – they run nonstop for hours (and most often doing so barefoot). In fact, a popular community event, called the “rarahipa” is an endurance race that lasts, day and night without a break, for several days.

5. The Tarahumara tend to be reclusive, which has helped preserve ways of life that have lasted for thousands of years, and share ancestry with the Aztecs.

4. No official census of Copper Canyon’s indigenous Tarahumara people has ever been taken. Most recent population estimates are a wide-ranging 35,000 to 70,000 individuals.

3. From start to finish, the Chihuahua al Pacifico runs for 408 miles, crossing 39 bridges and passing through 86 tunnels. The highest bridge is more than 1,000 feet above the Chinipas River.

2. The rarest mammals in Copper Canyon are Mexican wolves and cougars. Both are very seldom seen and live in the extremely remote regions of Copper Canyon.

1. Deforestation is a huge threat to Copper Canyon’s wildlife. Despite myriad species of trees – 200 different species of oak trees have been recorded in the Sierra Tarahumara Occidental region alone – only 2 percent of the original old-growth forest remains.

• Journey through Copper Canyon with WWF October 29 – November 5, 2011.

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